So, I’m over my ‘Boro disappointment and I feel a little better today.

It was quite clear from Sundays game that some players aren’t cutting the mustard. So I have put together a list of players that could potentially be leaving this winter!

Phil Senderos

Some say he is the spawn of Pascal Cygan, some say that is a harsh thing to say about Pascal Cygan. The truth of the matter is that he just ain’t doing it, is he? We can will him on, we can hark back to the Champions league run, but it won’t help. This man has a bad case of ‘Drogbaitis’ and he can’t seem to shake the after effects.

With the emergence of Johann D and young upstarts like Nordveit and G. Hoyte, it’s hard to see how this man is ever going to command a place in our back 4. Good job Wenger didn’t make him a captain way back when!

Christmas leavability likeliness: 70%

Gilberto Silva

We all think Bertie was treated badly by Arsenal. He carried the team last year and captained us admirably. He went away, and won the Copa American and then when he returned he found he was displaced!

He wasn’t given the Captaincy and he lost his holding role to the young French terrier Matty Flamini. To make matters worse, Arsenal went out and signed a younger quicker version of Gilberto… Diarra.

Being the true pro that he is, he has put his head down and kept his mouth buttoned. He played pretty poorly against Newcastle the other day and received a rough ride with the bloggers… and to be honest I think that stinks. He is only 31 and has a lot to offer Arsenal. Gilberto didn’t turn round last year and say ‘This lot are a load of shite, I’m off to Juve’. So Arsenal fans should show the man a little respect and accept that all players have bad games from time to time. Loyalty should be reciprocal guys.

Christmas leavability likeliness: 60%

Mad Jens

The maddest of the mad, Jens Lehmann. He had one amazing season for us and has kept us all amused for 4 years with his crazy German antics! This season however, he made 2 howlers in the first 2 games. Then he got dropped, then he bitched, then he bitched, then Almunia played well and then, well, he bitched…

The bitching has subsided, replaced by childish acts like sitting on the bench through half time. Jens is so desperate to play first team football, he is even thinking about dropping a division! I loved you Jens, but this season you’ve behaved like a real prick… time to go (Or is it?).

Christmas leavability likeliness: 95%

Nikki B

Rumour has it that Juande Ramos signed his contract with a North London club without reading it. He turned up in England, was chauffeur driven to the North London clubs training ground only to realise that he was at Spurs! Shit he thought, I thought I was signing for Arsenal.

He was pretty pissed at this oversight so decided the best way to get over his disappointment was to try and sign all the Arsenal players this Winter. He is after Nikki B now; fat chance is all I’ll say! Its like asking Nikki B to wear Primark… he just wont do it, his ego wouldn’t allow him to play for a club as poor as Spurs.

The media hypes up issues surrounding Nikki. If you watch him on Arsenal.com talking about his future, he is actually quite mature about it. I think he’ll stay with us and prove himself to be a world beater. Patience Nikki!

Christmas leavability likeliness: 20%

Flamini

I know what you’re thinking. How could he even suggest such a thing! TIS HERESY you scream! After all he is having the season of his life!

Well Grove chums, the reality is that he is out of contract at the end of the season, plenty of people will be interested in his signature and the guy has a lot of ambition. Gattuso is getting on, Madrid are getting rid of Diarra and a host of other clubs would kill for a player of Flamini’s commitment and drive.

I personally think he’ll sign a new contract the moment he gets offered one. I am just getting deja edu… do you know what I mean?

Christmas leavability likeliness: 20%

Justin Hoyte

We all like him. There is not too much to say about him. Average would sum him up. Maybe he got a little lucky by being at a club like Arsenal, but he has a lot of heart and supports us. His brother is also here. If he was offered first team football somewhere else you wouldn’t begrudge him would you? There is no right back in the world that could displace Sagna right now so I would expect him to move on at some point.

Christmas leavability likeliness: 60%

Eduardo

The man Myles Palmer said would be scoring hat tricks by October. How wrong you were dearest Myles. He has shown flashes of talent, mainly against England or for Croatia. Some people don’t think he will cut the mustard in the Prem and to them I say nay! He will come good guys; he is just a bit small at the moment. Maybe he’ll go out on loan? But I doubt it. Wenger won’t write of an £8 million signing.

Christmas leavability likeliness: 10%

There was one piece of inbound transfer gossip this morning! The Times has us linked with a winter move for Gourcuff. The man dubbed the new Zidane! We’ve been linked with this guy about a million times so its nothing new except this time he is not getting games for Milan… remember the last time we nicked a young Frenchman from Milan?

Anyway, less of what I think and more of what you think! Let your opinions be known in the comments section!

Happy Tuesday Grovers…. Come on mARSeille!!!

Update: Wenger logged onto Le Grove this morning and was reminded of his Flamini oversight, he has rectified the issue and apologises to all Grovers and Arsenal fans alike.

Yesterday was very poor. The passing was bad, there was no creativity and there was virtually no attacking football the whole game.

Overall a sloppy performance that merited a defeat.

There were some poor individual performances as well.

Kolo was poor all game. He didn’t need to make that tackle and he certainly didn’t need to make up for the penalty by trying 5 or 6 ninety eight yard passes that all failed. It was infuriating.

Gallas seemed to go missing yesterday. He was a lot quieter than I’d expected him to be.

Adebayor was shite all game. It would be easier to stomach his shitty performance if I didn’t have to constantly read about how great he has become this season, how he has been liberated by Thierrys departure… blah blah blah. I want to like him, but sometimes he is so useless I want to cry.

Almunia showed glimpses of why a lot of fans don’t have complete confidence in him. Does the man not learn? Don’t rush out of your goal if a defender is covering you. Its the little half mistakes he makes that cost us.

Eboue is the first Arsenal player that I actually wish didn’t play for us. He is petulant, dirty and he is very ineffective. Ok, he sends in a nice ball every now and then, or he does a nice back heel. But overall, he offers us very little.

Rosicky showed us in the world cup that he is a top top player. So why don’t we ever see it?

Gilberto and Diarra may come in for some criticism, but for me it would be unjust. They are the same player, so why play both of them? Denilson would have been better suited.

I won’t criticise Eduardo because he needs time to settle and I won’t criticise the full backs either.

Time for some perspective.

Arsenal are without 4 of there key players. You take 4 first teamers out of any of the top four teams and they are going to struggle (Take one out of Liverpool and they are fucked).

The way I am looking at it is like this.

We are playing the Romanians this week, we’ll spank them 5-0 and restore some confidence. Hopefully some of our first teamers will be back by Sunday and we’ll spank Chelsea 3-0. Then the football balance will be restored to the Universe!

Simple.

And remember Grovers…. We are top of the league, say we are top of the league!

Real Madrid wonder kid Daniel Parejo has the premiership’s top four club’s chasing him according to the News of the World, (so it has to be true) apparently he is the best young midfielder at Real and we want him, even though he’s contracted until 2011, and we are favourites.

You know what? If it’s true I’m glad we’re after their players for once.

We are the best league in the world, we have the best ground in the world, we are top of that league and we play the best football in the world, and if you don’t believe me, ask one Terence Henry!

So on that basis why are we not the new Real Madrid? by that I mean, over the years, when Madrid come calling, players go, same with Barca, Milan, Juve and ManU, so really it should be us now, we have the lot, and the best crop of youngsters in the world, so I feel confident that when we go knocking, we’ll get our man.

Other news before the big game is ManU and Chelsea won so we need to post three points to keep the gap, and the great news is Liverpool lost, so we are the only team left unbeaten in the Premier league, way to go Arsenal.

So let’s not trip up against ex Arsenal crock ‘Ali barber’ and his team of English youth players that will ultimately save our nation from Wenger and his stinking foreigners.

Not a lot else to report today but I hope and pray that by tomorrow we’ll have plenty to say.

Big month coming up Grover’s, Middlesbrough, Bucharest and the Chavs next week, followed by Blackburn, Spuds, Portsmouth and Everton away, it doesn’t get much tougher than that, but if we want to win the league, we have to take care of games like those.